FusionWiki

TJ-II:Confinement transitions

Revision as of 13:37, 20 October 2009 by Admin (talk | contribs)

Strongly driven fusion-grade plasmas often develop spontaneous (radial) narrow zones with steep gradients. This spontaneous local improvement of confinement is of fundamental importance for the operation of fusion plasmas. In fact, the important H-mode depends on it. This mechanism may also underlie the formation of internal transport barriers.

While this phenomenon is still not completely understood, much progress has been made in recent years. It is believed that turbulent fluctuations drive sheared or zonal flows via the Reynolds Stress Mechanism. [1] This mechanism transfers energy of high-frequency drift type turbulence to low wavelength modes. The zonal flow itself is radially localized and has a very long (infinite) toroidal and poloidal wavelength. This flow then shears the turbulent eddies apart, leading to local turbulence suppression at specific radial locations, and a concomitant local reduction of transport. [2]

At TJ-II, much effort has been invested in the experimental measurement and theoretical understanding of this phenomenon. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]

References

  1. ↑ S.B. Korsholm et al, Reynolds stress and shear flow generation, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 43 (2001) 1377-1395
  2. ↑ P.H. Diamond et al, Zonal flows in plasma - a review, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 47 (2005) R35-R161
  3. ↑ P.H. Diamond et al, In search of the elusive zonal flow using cross-bicoherence analysis, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 12 (2000) 4842
  4. ↑ C. Hidalgo et al, Experimental Investigation of Dynamical Coupling between Turbulent Transport and Parallel Flows in the JET Plasma-Boundary Region, Phys. Rev. Lett. 91 (2003) 065001
  5. ↑ C. Hidalgo et al., Experimental evidence of coupling between sheared-flow development and an increase in the level of turbulence in the TJ-II stellarator, Phys. Rev. E 70 (2004) 067402
  6. ↑ C. Hidalgo et al, Improved confinement regimes induced by limiter biasing in the TJ-II stellarator, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 46 (2004) 287-297
  7. ↑ M.A. Pedrosa et al., Threshold for sheared flow and turbulence development in the TJ-II stellarator, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 47 (2005) 777-788
  8. ↑ E. Sánchez et al., On the energy transfer between flows and turbulence in the plasma boundary of fusion devices, J. of Nuclear Materials 337 (2005) 296
  9. ↑ B.A. Carreras et al, Critical transition for the edge shear layer formation: Comparison of model and experiment, Phys. Plasmas 13 (2006) 122509
  10. ↑ B. Gonçalves et al., Role of Turbulence on Edge Momentum Redistribution in the TJ-II Stellarator, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 (2006) 145001
  11. ↑ B.Ph. van Milligen et al, Bicoherence during confinement transitions in the TJ-II stellarator, Nucl. Fusion 48 (2008) 115003
  12. ↑ M.A. Pedrosa et al, Evidence of Long-Distance Correlation of Fluctuations during Edge Transitions to Improved-Confinement Regimes in the TJ-II Stellarator, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100 (2008) 215003
  13. ↑ I. Calvo et al, Zonal flows and long-distance correlations during the formation of the edge shear layer in the TJ-II stellarator, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 51 (2009) 065007
  14. ↑ C. Hidalgo et al, Multi-scale physics mechanisms and spontaneous edge transport bifurcations in fusion plasmas, Europhys. Lett. 87 (2009) 55002
Retrieved from "http://wiki.fusenet.eu/fusionwiki/index.php?title=TJ-II:Confinement_transitions&oldid=1761"